The present invention relates to hair styling devices, namely devices for forming French knots, buns and the like.
Long hair styles are popular with people of all ages, particularly with women. Because of the popularity of long hair styles, several devices have been invented for styling long hair. Examples include barrettes, hair ties, combs and ornamental hair pins.
Of the hair styling devices that are currently known, there are few devices that exist which are useful for styling long hair into a bun, a French knot, or similar style.
There are soft sponge-like rings that are known. The ring is covered with a fine netting material, which can be used by drawing the hair through the opening in the sponge, wrapping the hair around the ring and securing the hair onto the ring by trapping the hair and the netting material together with hair pins. The rings described above can also be formed from a fabric such as woven nylon covered with a nylon netting. Typically, the rings have an outer diameter of approximately four inches and have an inner diameter of approximately two inches.
There are disadvantages in using a soft ring to form a hair bun. It is difficult to wrap smooth, thick hair around the ring, pin the hair down and have the hair remain in place. It is also quite time consuming to wrap the hair around the ring when the hair is long. When the hair being styled is shorter, it may not be possible to wrap the hair completely around the ring.
There are flexible combs that are known having two ends which can be opened to install the comb around hair, and then closed to form a substantially circular ring. Flexible combs have many sharp, pointed edges which can scrape the scalp. Such a comb is also not particularly useful for styling hair into a bun. The flexible combs described above are primarily intended to be used to form French knots.
There are currently no known hair styling devices which can be used to rapidly and easily form a French knot, bun or similar hair style.